A Cautionary Tale

Sunday, January 29, 2012

About a week or so ago, I hit a wall. I just felt the weight of this healthy living world on my shoulders and it was holding me down. For a few weeks before this, I had been very active on SparkPeople, so I decided to tone it down a bit. I would log in and log my food and exercise and stick to that for a week.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!

You see, I did "tone it down" on SP--Waaaaaay down. So far down that I was completely off program. I gained 6.4 pounds that week--which is bad in itself, but worse when you realize that I had only lost 6 pounds from when I restarted my goals at the beginning of the week. AAARRGGHH!

What did I learn? Well, I learned that I need SparkPeople. I need to be active on the boards and read my articles and log my food and exercise, etc. However, I also need to be realistic about it. When I pulled myself back up again, I realized that I needed to streamline things. I left a number of SparkTeams that I was only marginally active in so that I could concentrate on my other teams. I had a "thing" that I needed to earn 100 SparkPoints a day. I've given that up as well.

Now, though, I'm back--and I'm mad at myself over those 6.4 pounds (although, to be fair, a bit of that was water/sodium). So, I've set some goals up for myself this week.
1 - 10,000 steps a day, EVERY day (I'm currently at 9826, so I should be able to get those last ones in before bed!).
2 - Do my Chris Freytag video 3 times this week--I'm aiming for Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. That's the only exercise I've "planned," but I'm not going to turn my nose up at opportunities on other days. Just today, I did a 35 minute workout first thing in the morning,
3 - Track all food every day.
4 - Blog every day.

It is kind of amazing the affect getting off sp can have on us. I think that's why I never leave, I tone it down, too, and think maybe I've toned it down too much like you did. But thankfully you recognized it quickly and got right back on. I did spend $153 at the grocery store last night and today I packed lunch and snacks. That helps me a lot. I'd been eating out at fast food places for lunch for a few months...why I do that to myself I don't know. My jeans are so tight I have to lose weight or buy a larger size and I REFUSE to go up another size. So, it's time to get back on track.